From the first 15 minutes, you'll realize that this isn't your stereotypical art house French movie – it's full of action and puts you on the edge of your seat. OK, I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of French movies, but every once in a while I see one that I like. Past favorites of mine include Le Femme Nikita, Jean de Florette, Manon of The Spring and now Brotherhood of The Wolf. Brotherhood boasts excellent action sequences, state-of-the-art special effects, and beautiful cinematography. It is kind of a cross between a period piece set in 18th Century France, The Matrix andCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The story is about a Parisian scientist and his Canadian-Iroquois blood brother who are sent by King Louis XV to track the Beast of Gevaudan, a giant wolf-like creature that killed more than 100 people in mid-18th-century France. No, this isn't a werewolf movie; rather, it is a mystery/action movie complete with political intrigue (from the Vatican to the French Royal Court) where nobody is who they seem to be.

However, the move did have some periods where it got pretty slow and
took itself a bit too seriously at times with the characters' somewhat
preachy dialog. Overall I had a good time and would recommend it. The
film is now available at major movie rental chains.

In Arabic, the written form is substantially
different from the spoken…to the point that it justifies learning it on
its own. FusHa is the formal/written medium of Arabic, rarely spoken
but commonly used in literature, historical manuscripts, government
documentation, and religious or ceremonial contexts. The two types of
FusHa are called Classical and Modern Standard (MSA). Modern Standard
Arabic is the most commonly taught form of FusHa.

Colloquial Egyptian is the most widely understood Arabic dialect in the
Middle East.Egypt's capital, Cairo, has long been the center of Arab
media, films and television programs watched by millions of people
across the Arab world. In terms of the number of films produced, Cairo
would fall third in line of production after Bollywood (India) and
Hollywood (USA). Regardless of the rather dramatic changes in dialect
throughout the Arabic speaking countries, Egyptian media has made
Egyptian Colloquial Arabic familiar to nearly every household.

Regardless
of which Arabic speaking destinations you may find yourself in,
Egyptian Arabic is a good dialect to begin learning because Arabic
speakers around the world will be able to understand you. You may have
difficulty understanding their dialect at first, but they will at least
be able to understand you. You can adjust your new colloquial Arabic
accordingly from that point.

In general, Arabic courses taught at
universities focus on MSA so that are able to read but not communicate
in the language very well. Kind of like, learning Latin and then trying
to communicate to Italian speakers. You have the basis of the language,
but obviously the language has evolved a lot since the days that Latin
was spoken. It has similarities, but the language itself is just not
spoken any more.

Why Egyptian Colloquial Arabic Arabic?
Egyptian Colloquial Arabic is considered a “lingua franca” – a language
that is understood and used across borders” – within the Arab world.
Egypt's capital, Cairo, has long been the center of Arab media, films
and television programs watched by millions of people across the Arab
world. In terms of the number of films produced, Cairo would fall third
in line of production after Bollywood (India) and Hollywood (USA).
Regardless of the rather dramatic changes in dialect throughout the
Arabic speaking countries, Egyptian media has made Egyptian Colloquial
Arabic familiar to nearly every household.

Regardless of which Arabic speaking destinations you may find yourself
in, Egyptian Arabic is a good dialect to begin learning because Arabic
speakers around the world will be able to understand you. You may have
difficulty understanding their dialect at first, but they will at least
be able to understand you. You can adjust your new colloquial Arabic
accordingly from that point.

We at AmeriSpan Study Abroad are pleased to launch our new Blog where we'll keep our readers appraised of what is happening in the travel and study abroad world. You can easily link to our RSS Feed by right clicking on the RSS Feed button or add our blog to your "My Yahoo" page by clicking on the My Yahoo button. We invite you to email us study abroad journals and other relevant blogs so we can link to them and share their knowledge and experience with the thousands of past, present and future AmeriSpan participants.